Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

Nerval's Lobster writes "The winter weather made my hands numb. I was distracted, rushed, running late to a meeting. Put those two things together, and it's a recipe for disaster,' Boonsri Dickinson writes in her account of how she lost her Google Glass unit. 'The cab had already gone two blocks before I realized my Google Glass was no longer in my hand. I asked the driver to swing back around to where he picked me up; I retraced my steps along the snowy street to my apartment, looking for my $1,500 device. No luck. Total panic.' The device featured photos, video, email, and other data that, in the wrong hands, could seriously upend her life. Fortunately, the person who found the Glass unit was a.) more interested in returning the device than wrecking her existence, and b.) engaged in quite a bit of digital detective work to track her down (with some help from Google). 'The device holds more than enough data to make me nervous about the possible voyeuristic invasion of my privacy, and the fear of the thought that the media connected to my Glass would possibly end up online, somewhere, cached forever in a Google search,' she concluded. But the saga also reset some of her faith in humanity."

yeah. she writes as though she has the impression that the guy was so altruistic returning her glass. Really, he probably saw it belonged to some cute chick and probably thought he might get some action for helping her.

If you have to seriously worry about how data on a device could upend your life, you should a) not keep that data on something you can loose so easily or b) keep it protected so that losing the device has no impact.

honestly. when I saw the headline "how i lost my google glass and regained some faith in humanity" I assumed it was about a person who lost his/her google glass and came to his/her senses about how awful it is to wear those everywhere.

honestly. when I saw the headline "how i lost my google glass and regained some faith in humanity" I assumed it was about a person who lost his/her google glass and came to his/her senses about how awful it is to wear those everywhere.

I thought so too.

but it was more like a story of "omg I lost my phone and got it back" - which would have been amazing tbh(chances of getting a google glass back are far higher than an iphone, because it's so exotic still).

If this is someone you know - why are your friends such an assholes to photo what they shouldn't, or why are you such an asshole to kick your friends out when they don't photo anything of importance?

If this is someone you don't know - why the hell would they want to photo your shitty apartments? (only plausible version I heard is "But what if they want to rob me!" - but it doesn't hold water, unless you also blindfold them so they won't see your valuables)

I have no issue with recording the police nor having the police record all they do. They are in a special position to infringe on other's people's rights and are confrontational in doing so. Having that recorded protects them as well as those they interact with. Now recording regular people 24/7? Yes, I'm 100% against that occurring against the subject's wishes.

To be on topic - the funniest quote was the glass owner's worries about invasion of privacy. Maybe she'll think twice about wearing it all the time

If she sees me and she (or the thief) shares it online, it *is* an invasion of my privacy. And that's why I am opposed to Google Glass. If I sit in a restaurant, that is a private venue, not a public place. So turn off your f*cking Google Glass, or I will. There is a fundamental difference between seeing me somewhere, and saving imagery of seeing me somewhere.

You might find that if you used GG here in Germany, you might find yourself confronted with a lawsuit.

"If she sees me and she (or the thief) shares it online, it *is* an invasion of my privacy. "

It is not intrinsically an invasion of your privacy. If it were in a place where you can ASSUME privacy (such as a restroom), then yes. But if it's an open, public place it is NOT an invasion of your PRIVACY.

In the US, we are allowed to videotape or photograph anything or anyone in public space. Private properties may prohibit it -- and if it "leaked" out due to a theft of photos or device you STILL wouldn't have

You might find that if you used GG here in Germany, you might find yourself confronted with a lawsuit.

I am not sure about this. German privacy laws strongly hinge on expectation of privacy and publication. For example, if I am in a bar that does not explicitly forbade the taking pictures and somebody takes a picture of someone else and I am in the background. I can not prevent this or force the deletion/destruction. Yet if the picture gets published I can demand that my face is obfuscated.

As long as someone uses Glass in publicly accessible area where taking pictures is not something out of the common and t

This tastes like an advert, but maybe it's just a way of currying favour with Google. Anyway, I've also found expensive stuff lying on the ground, including significant sums of money, and I've always found the owner (if contactable) or reported to the police. Maybe it's because I'm not in the US, but here this just seems like the right thing to do. It's actually been profitable, too, since some things aren't claimed, so end up being legally mine.

This person is worried about their privacy YET access to their life's data to one company. They're worried about their privacy YET filming everyone around them. The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. But most humans, no matter how much logic they're capable of, are excellent at putting logic aside when it suits their drives (this would have to be so: there is not even a reason to live beyond, "I feel like it.")

it's also showing a serious misunderstanding of how glass works.. it gets connected via bluetooth (for data) or wifi (for data). the images/searches/whatever go to google first.. then get dropped back to your phone via the magic of "the cloud".

they are already cached forever in google search, and available online.. blocked only by your privacy settings on g+

I suppose if you only ever used it as a bad go pro, you could in theory get away with not having the uploading "feature" there and just pull everything

"Maybe it's because I'm not in the US, but here this just seems like the right thing to do. It's actually been profitable, too, since some things aren't claimed, so end up being legally mine."

Oh come on. Its not like everyone in the US are a bunch of selfish, thieving jerks. There are people who are low-life jerks and there are people who are good people. I have had my phone returned to me, twice. The first time it was a goy in brooklyn who honestly looked like a gangbanger thug. He didn't ask for a dime and refused the 20 bucks i was giving him as a thankyou. The second time I dropped it in a cab in Atlantic City. I called my phone, he picked up and arranged to ship it back to me. A few days later the phone came in a padded envelope and he didn't ask for any money. I mailed back 40 bucks and a note telling him to treat himself to a nice lunch or whatever.

Of course there are crappy people all over, shockingly, outside of the US as well. I used to go to a bar where the bartender kept every thing he found someone had left behind. He was a piece of shit so that goes hand in hand with being a lousy thief.

Her credit card information, e-mail, address, and various other bits are probably on glass. If you walked by her, your face is on glass, that's it. Apples and oranges. Very tiny oranges. I know it's fun to hate on google and glass, but lets keep criticisms fair and not get distracted from bigger privacy concerns such as the NSA or law enforcement cams everywhere.

We often get too jaded from the news about the worst of humanity. Sure they are more then their fare share of bad people. However most people if given the opportunity will do the right thing, or at least something neutral.

Now if you found a pair of Google Glasses, would the first thing on your mind would be messing with the guys personal information, I mean he just lost an expensive device, messing with him will just add insult to injury. Secondly Google loves to track. How long do you think it will take

You actually do make some good points, and I've found that the majority of people really aren't douches. My issue with the original post/story was that it seemed like this piece probably belonged somewhere else besides Slashdot. After all, most readers here live/breathe/eat tech on an insider level, to where we have a tech life, as opposed to a tech "lifestyle." We generally engineer the hardware and software that other people write about and use. The psychological dependence on tech, in that losing an

No, we must get a grant to study reusable cloth diapers for wild bears. They might resist at first, but with sufficient resources and some principles from attachment parenting, we could find a method to get this to work. Then all we would need is a grant to study the proper brand/supplier of these reusable diapers only to give the contract no bid to a company that dumps them in an illegal landfill in the woods.

If you have data that may incriminate, embarrass or cause financial loss, then the proper place for said data is probably not on a device which is easily lost. If one of the primary purposes of an easily lost device is to collect and store data that may incriminate, embarrass or cause financial loss, than that device probably shouldn't exist.

You would think that a device you're supposed to wear as a pair of spectacles would be less loseable than a phone. If they're so inconvenient that you wind up carrying them around by hand instead of head and lose them, what's the point exactly?

Sunglasses are probably the one item I have lost more often than all others combined. My phone stays in my pocket when I'm not actively using it. Sunglasses (and I guess Google Glass would be more similar to sunglasses than anything else) often get put on a table or other places because they don't fit in many pockets or will get scratched if they're thrown in a bigger pocket with keys etc.

is that as soon as you lose a device, not only are you $200-$2000 out of pocket, but your life could easily be ruined by a nefarious passer-by who happened to find your lost gadget. No technology is private, stop deluding yourself.

"The device featured photos, video, email, and other data that, in the wrong hands, could seriously upend her life."
She's carrying data around on a mobile device that could seriously upend her life? I don't even store that kind of data on my home laptop in the clear. It never ceases to amaze me that people store sensitive information unencrypted on small mobile device. One word: TrueCrypt.

Got an invite to purchase Google Glass last week. I was excited and had almost made the purchase before my coworker made the observation that if I wear them anywhere in downtown Rochester NY there is a good chance I will be mugged. I guess the moral of the story is until they make it not obvious that I am wearing $1500 on my head that this is probably an impractical accessory for anyone living where crime is at all prevalent.

Side note: If the person who found them "engaged in quite a bit of digital detective work to track [the stupid git] down," What gives her the impression they didn't clone everything on the device before handing it back over?

So she thinks. But there's no guarantee that the finder didn't plug it into his laptop and download a copy of all her data before beginning his search for the rightful owner.

More than likely the finder did just that - at least it's what I'd do for the simple reason that browsing media on my hard disk is so much faster than browsing it over a slow USB link from a slow SD-card or similar media. The real question would be, did he delete the data afterwards?

And indeed it'd probably best for the rest of us if some of these people losing their Google Glass would indeed end up having all their embarrassing recordings on YouTube and other public Google services. Let them burn their han

So she thinks. But there's no guarantee that the finder didn't plug it into his laptop and download a copy of all her data before beginning his search for the rightful owner.

More than likely the finder did just that - at least it's what I'd do for the simple reason that browsing media on my hard disk is so much faster than browsing it over a slow USB link from a slow SD-card or similar media. The real question would be, did he delete the data afterwards?

For me it depends on the data. I do electronic cleaning for a local pawn shop chain, and although most of the time I don't find anything worth saving, occasionally I find stuff on old laptops and cameras is worth keeping, like when I found a treasure trove of Iraq combat videos on a broken laptop someone just gave to the store. Other times, I've found evidence of serious criminal activity, and had to save the data so I could turn it over to law enforcement.

"'The device holds more than enough data to make me nervous about the possible voyeuristic invasion of my privacy, and the fear of the thought that the media connected to my Glass would possibly end up online, somewhere, cached forever in a Google search,' she concluded. "

So she has a device that can essentially record, upload, index and publicize the activity of others without their consent and she's worried abouther privacy. Oh, sweet irony, how have thee forsaken the narcissist hipster Glassholes?

A typical Google Glass wearer will not know more than they would have known without those glasses. It is not the act of recording, instead it's dispatch of such recordings to third parties that's the (possible) invasion of privacy.

If you don't want someone to know something about you, don't tell them, no matter whether they're wearing a pair of spectacles with built-in video camera or not.

Actually this say more about you and the rest of the self important Slashdot crowd who assume the every glass user is interested exclusively in invading your privacy. Guess what turns out glass users use the technology for their own purposes and aren't as interested in you or your life as much you think. In other news I have a mobile phone with a camera on it I carry everywhere. I'm sure you'll be pleased to know I haven't tried to hunt you down and take pictures of you either. Does not having an interest i

I found a planner of some person with a lot of data, but only name and photo of him and his wife were true. There was fake phone number and fake address. I had to trace down his name, arrange it by photos, find his relatives, search for their contact, then finally found one working phone, called and returned it back taking no money.

So this is a sum up of what I found:- if you are carrying stuff around, be prepared to loose it.- if thats about information, the best you can do is to expect loose any day. That means - do not take all your data with you, ideally the device should just be a hub. If its not, make backups of data (cloud, offline, no matter) and store information on the device with good encryption. Should the device be lost, change your passwords.

- if this is a physical thing with some value (or its an additional physical layer of some price around information), think what has more value to you - exposing your basic contact info and possibly returning the device, or not exposing it and not getting it back. Hence the preference for cheap gadgets. However, if the device is of some value to you, do update some contacts on it - chances are good guy finds it and brings it to you or (better) police department. Just write some "if you found this thing, please call... for reward" note, you dont have to mention your name or even your address. Think that if its a good guy, he just needs to know how to contact you - nothing else. And if it will be a bad guy, he should not know nothing else but some disposable contact (that should never the less be kept polished if it happens).

Take care.

On the root of my Flash drives I put a "IF FOUND README.TXT" file with a phone number, and a secondary email address. The file is prominent (since I minimize the number of files in the root), and a TXT file will open on any system. As well if the finder is tech savvy, and skeptical of it potentially being a bait device, the fact that it's a TXT file should reduce their worries that it may contain a malicious MS Word macro, etc.

On other devices I try to slip a card between the case and the body, or put a pie

It seems like this would be something she'd be able to track down from the internet using her Google account, but I wasn't able to find anything doing a quick search. After all, even Apple provides one for the iPhone [apple.com].

Maaaaaaaaaybe you shouldn't create not-so-public-friendly media of any kind of a portable device...or any computer anywhere ever. It's like the rule of don't put it on the internet if you don't want everyone in the world to see it. Don't store personal photos and data and logins and videos and files on a portable, steal-able, lose-able device. That's just stupid.

I somehow manage to get through every day without constantly taking pictures, checking feeds and updates, etc with a device strapped to my hea

It was repeated several times in the article; she was worried about 'media' on the device being posted to the internet. That it would be a 'voyeuristic invasion of privacy.'

You all realize what's being said here right? I don't think I'm speculating too much here; she took naughty photos and/or video with her glass. That's why she was so worried. Not the cost, nor her email (which she changed the password on after the fact), nor much of anything really, aside from the 'media on the device'. This wasn't

Lassie: Woof!Peggy: Timmy fell down the well!?Lassie: Woof! Growl!Peggy: Timmy lost his Google glasses?!?Lassie: Woof! Woof!Peggy: Timmy found his Google glasses!?Lassie runs off crapping on the carpet as he heads towards the door.Peggy: Oh, Lassie wanted to go outside.

The device holds more than enough data to make me nervous about the possible voyeuristic invasion of my privacy,

Sort of absurd you didn't consider that you might lose them or have them stolen.That said how about the invasion of "relative" privacy for everyone around you with your Glass and soon to be available (or already available) facial recognition apps?

>> and the fear of the thought that the media connected to my Glass would possibly end up online, somewhere, cached forever in a Google search,...and of course it doesn't even occur to the dumb bitch that Google themselves would already be doing pretty much exactly that too.

The story here is that every slashdot reader would have (a) looked for porn on the device (b) downloaded any personal information and then put it up on the internet just to be an asshole and point out how "insecure" the device is and then (c) sold it on ebay.

As it was, a real human found her device and got it back to her. The sad part - everyone posting here pretty much confirms that they would have done the above three instead of being a good human and giving it back.